Hellhound
by Pencilwalla
Summary: Beauty and the Beast, a la Hellsing. Darkfic.
1. Hellhound

_beast_

Once upon a time, there was a hunter. Not a hunter of animals, or criminals, but of monsters. In particular, the hunter was a hunter of the vampire. The hunter lived in a great house on the mountainside, and he had many hunters who worked for him, keeping the kingdom safe from harm. But his pride and joy was his own daughter, called Integral, who was the best and sharpest of them all.

There came a day when the priests came to the great house and said, "Arthur Hellsing, it is time to redraw the border between our lands, so that thee will be no more fighting between us." And Arthur agreed, for the priests of Iscariot and the hunters of Hellsing had fought many a time, and he wished to prevent it. He said to his hunters that he would set out in three days, and with all haste preparations were made.

On the morning of the third day, Arthur went to his daughter; all dressed in traveling clothes, and said, "Integral, I am setting out for the priests."

And Integral said, "Good hunting, Father. May you do your duty well." Arthur was warmed by her words, and gave her the crucifix from his own neck, all shining and silver. She put it in her breast pocket, and they parted.

For a month and a day Arthur remained at the priests', eating and drinking, fighting and winning. He slew many monsters, he made treaties, and he bought a surplus of holy supplies for his organization. At the end of that time, he left the priest' city on his horse, a great wooden cross tied to his back, and made out for home. But a storm came, and forced him off the path in the dark, through unfamiliar and foreboding woods. Eventually he came to a church.

The church was ruined, the glass windows broke and the wood beginning to rot. He ventured inside; glad to have shelter, and saw that there was a girl inside. She had golden hair and gleaming red eyes, and Arthur knew that she was a vampire when he saw her.

"Be gone from this holy place, fiend." He said, and raised the wooden cross to keep her back. The girl shuddered, and cowered, and held up her hands for mercy.

"Hunter." She said. "Please do not kill me. I am only a young maiden, and besides, I am still a fledgling."

This disturbed Arthur, for when he looked closely at the dark church he saw it was all stained with blood and gore. The dust of dead ghouls was everywhere, and now Arthur knew that this place had been sacked by the undead. "Where is your Master?"

"I do not know." She said, and she wiped away bloodied tears. "He has left me all alone."

But the hunter saw that the girl held her arm behind her back, and that she cast a great shadow upon the floor, and knew he could not trust her. Indeed, he saw she was a true nosferatu by the telltale gleam of hunger in her eyes. So he thrust his cross at her, and yelled for her to tell the truth.

She cowered against the pews, and said, "In the village down the way; he found another vampire and they are fighting. Oh! Take that thing away!" He came up to her and ran the cross through her heart; she crumbled into dust upon the floor. Satisfied, he took up a silver candlestick from the ground, dipped in his flask of holy water, and set out to stake the vampire in the village.

When he came upon the village, he found it to be like the church; full of ghouls and death. He could hear the vampires fighting from his position, and could smell the scent of spilled blood. He went forth, taking his silver stake firmly in hand, and watched the to vampires battle. The first wore the garb of a priest, and was so covered in blood that his face was not visible; the other was only a formless mass of shadows, sporting a thousand red eyes. Arthur knew that this was the mark of a truly terrible beast, so he first slew the priest-vampire with his bow.

The other vampire looked at him, and sneered terribly; he came across the killing field to face the hunter. Arthur struck at his breast with his stake, but no matte how many times he stabbed him, the wound only healed again and again. Then the monster grabbed him by the neck and whisked him away in his shadows.

Arthur was locked up in a dungeon in a dark castle. Everyday the vampire would come, and open another cell, of which there were a thousand; he would take out a human, be they man, woman, or child and rend them limb from limb and drink their blood. For two months this went on, until at last the poor man could not withstand it. The vampire looked into his heart, and came to him one evening.

"Monster, cease these atrocities. Let these innocents go."

"Why should I spare any of these dogs? What can you, a puny human, offer me?" asked the vampire. "I am the Count; I am the No life King; what will you do to save these wretches whom I eat?"

"I will die for them myself; you may sup on my blood."

But the Count was clever and he could smell, with his keen sense, a maiden on the hunter. So he said, "That is nothing. I will release all these people left in this dungeon, but you must give me the first maiden you lay eyes on when you return home. If you do not keep to your promise, I will ravage every village between here and the ocean. Await me at the next full moon."

Arthur was at first horrified, for he knew that the maiden he would see would be his own chaste daughter, but he thought to himself: "My daughter is a true huntress; she may be able to kill this monster; and one life for so many is a fair enough trade." So he assented, and all the doors to all the cells flew open. The vampire vanished, and the hunter led all the trapped people out.

He returned, forlorn, to his home, and as soon as he stepped onto the grounds he looked up to see his daughter on the balcony. She came down the steps and to his horse, looking as pleased as she ever did. Before any others could disturb them, she saw his depressed expression.

"Father, what troubles you? You have been so long in coming home."

"Nothing, Integral, only that the priest Maxwell has asked for your hand."

"I refuse him; Father, what truly bothers you?"

"Nothing, Integral, only that I have missed you."

"You are not so sentimental, Father; do not lie to me."

So he told her his tale, of the vampire and the murdered people, and she gave her approval.

"I would have done the same, Father, and perhaps all is not lost; we have never seen this vampire before. Tell me: did you notice anything strange about this Count's castle?"

"It was a dark and gloomy place, bare of furnishing, with heaps of money and treasure lying about. And his grounds were in the shape of a circle, with a hedge growing round the edges."

"Then I have a thought, Father; he keeps all those people shut in his castle, which he must feed and water and keep. That is too much trouble for his like; his power is enough that he could go wherever and kidnap someone to sate him. Was it a full moon you met him, Father?"

"It was. You think he can only eave his unholy castle on the full moon?"

"I do, else he should have come with you, or given us a set frame of time."

Keeping this thought in mind, the hinter rushed about in a great frenzy; the time seemed quite short as he prepared for his daughter's departure. As for Integral, she merely kept her sword polished, her crucifix about her throat and some silver sand in her pocket. She was a cool-headed woman who felt no fear upon entering into the vampire's power.

On the full moon, she went and sat out by the gate, her head covered by the hood of her cloak. A great black dog came up, with eight red eyes and enormous fangs.

"Are you the vampire Alucard?" She asked, and the dog nodded. She drew back her hood. "I am the maiden, here to fulfill my father's accord." She looked stern and hard in the moonlight, and the hellhound knew it was the right maiden. He seized the edge of her cloak and drew her, like her father, into a whirl of shadows. They came out on the grounds of the dark castle, and there was no longer a dog holding her hem but a vampire with a wide and awful smile.

_beauty _

Once upon a time, there was a priest. He was quite an ordinary priest, except that he was wickedly clever in the old magics. Indeed, he had read a great many books about magic, written several himself, and on the subject he was thought to be an expert.

But as it happened, the priest was not so skilled in battle, and he was perhaps a bit nervous due to his sheltered habits; and when he ran into a vampire he was nearly slain, but a huntress came upon him and to his rescue. The poor man was quite enamored, and pledged to repay her should she ever need him. He never saw that huntress again, but kept er in his heart and thought of her often.

Two years and a day from that meeting, the huntress's father, Arthur, came to his home. He knocked down the door and smashed up the garden, but when the priest looked upon Arthur's face, mad with grief, he felt sorry for him and invited him in to take tea. But the hunter did not pay him nay mind.

"Priest, my daughter did you a service, and now she is in terrible peril. You must turn all your energies into her salvation."

"I will do everything and anything for sweet Integral; only say the word, sir." The priest replied. "What has befallen her?"

"I gave her to the Count, and thought only death could befall her at worst; but now I have heard he means to make her his immortal bride, and that will banish her very soul to hell."

"The Count? You mean that vampire who lives in a round castle and may not leave it save at full moon? I cannot help you; there is only one way to slay him; it is not possible."

"Speak! Speak!" Arthur commanded him, and shook him with his massive hands. The priest cried out, and fell to the ground. He had begun to weep.

"There is a spell, old as any, but for it to pass, the Count must have a bride, a willing maiden, and then-and then the maiden must die and with her her immortal spouse!"

"Must it be my daughter? Will no other maiden suffice?" The hunter begged.

"It must be a bride that the Count himself chooses, and he has chosen her already. Surely your daughter will not willingly become the companion of the Count!"

At this Arthur paused to reflect. He knew his daughter was unyielding in her pursuit of her prey; if she was to hear of this she would certainly consider the option. She would not flinch from dying in the name of Hellsing.

"She must not hear of this." Arthur told the priest. "We will find another way."

And with that he left. He sought out other priests, withes, and all manner of strange people in search of another way; but he found nothing, and when he returned to the priest in despair, the little house was empty. The villager not too far away told him that the priest had been found murdered out in the woods a few mornings ago; and Arthur was afraid, for last night had been a full moon.

For if before meeting his demise at the Count's bloody hands, he had managed to convey to Integra the spell, she might act rashly and become the Count's unholy wife. He resolved to go to the woods and try to see her, but though he searched long and hard, he could not find again that dark and gloomy castle of the Count. Upon returning home, he grew so ill that he could not stir form his bed.

The servants and hunters despaired that the hunter would live past the end of the month; but a letter came in the mouth of a black dog, a fearsome beast, addressed from Integral herself.

The letter said that she was newly wed, and most wanting to see her father. She asked that he come to the gate of her castle and that she would send some guide to lead him; and that he must be certain to bring her certain possessions of her mothers, including a hairpin of silver.

At this, though he was still weak, the hunter got onto his horse and rode away, following the howling of the wolves. He came to the castle in but an hour, and waited impatiently until sunset, waiting to see his daughter.

The vampire came out, white as bone and black as death, and at his side was Integral; and it broke Arthur, though he had tried to prepare himself, to see her glowing red eyes, her fangs, and a mark on her throat where she had worn a crucifix. It was true that she was still beautiful, and her manner was quite unchanged.

"Leave for a while." She said to her husband. "I wish to speak with my father." The vampire smiled his horrible smile, and faded into the fog around them. Integral came to the horse, which shied away from her, and Arthur dismounted. He took his daughter's cold hand.

"You are the Count's bride."

"So I am." She said, and she sounded almost surprised, as if she had only just realized it. "You think it strange, I know, but you have no cause to worry. He has not laid a hand on me since I came here."

"It is not your body, but your soul, Integral. See the mark upon your throat."

"He tore it away, when he put his teeth to my throat; he ripped it in two and it did no harm to him." She sighed. "Some things are not to be borne, Father." There was an odd way to her voice as she said this, and she squeezed his hand; he felt again terrible grief at losing his daughter to the vampire Count.

"But you have borne the Count!" The hunter cried.

"He is not so heavy." Integral said, and then she asked for the hairpin. He drew it from his coat pocket; it was long and silver, engraved with words of old and great power. She reached for it, and then shrank back; for a vampire could not touch silver without their flesh being burned. She drew out a handkerchief and reached out one white hand to pick up the treasure.

At that instant the Count returned, his expression menacing: he snatched away his bride and held her close to his chest; Arthur, the hunter, saw this and his heart burned with rage, for this monster had defiled his own pure child-

-he plunged the silver stake into Integral's breast and the blood stained the earth at her feet, the white of her hands-

-the Count's countenance faltered and his breast too welled up with dark, sluggish blood-

-he bent his head to his bride, as if to kiss her-

-they crumbled to dust- together -

_dead._


	2. Deleted Scene: The Broken Cross

_The Broken Cross_

The cross around her neck was strung on a silver chain, short enough that it clung to her skin rather than resting in the hollow of her throat. It was polished and gleaming, a symbol of good. She had viewed it as powerful, as a weapon, as strength. She had taken it for granted that the cross was on her side.

It was such a little thing. A silver cross.

His teeth pressed against her skin. A shudder...a half-voiced whimper...and a nod that he felt rather than saw.

She tensed, she waited with her breath held...

...and he bit down.

In the deserted castle, the sound of her screaming reached not a single ear but one...

...he had never enjoyed a turning so much as that one.

Out of the corner of h er eye, a flash of white, a streak of pain, and the hollow sound of humanity snapped.

Something hit the ground nearby, but she was too far gone to know or care.

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She awoke to darkness, to the wooden lid of a coffin. She rushed out; found herself alone, and scrambled for her clothes.

She hesitated to draw his cloak over her shoulders...but then again, what was there to lose?

The broken cross was left to collect dust upon the stone floor.

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**Someone, in a review, mentioned how Integral and Alucard had such small parts in Hellhound. I cut them out of the story on purpose and worked in the priest plotline instead-I wanted Integral's reasons for becoming the Counts bride to be ambiguous. You argue that she did it after hearing the priest's story and apply that reasoning to her future actions concerning her father, or you can take a more romantic route and say she loved the Count enough to become his immortal bride, but not enough to bear being a vampire and arranged to have herself killed, not knowing it would kill him a well. Or both. I just wanted to give the readers a sort of deleted scene if they were curious. (Of course, only one person has reviewed, so who knows?)**

**This has been chickentyrant5.**


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